Dead Bird Brewing Company — Restaurant in Milwaukee

We went for the pop-up smash burger event, only to find out that the smash burgers were plant based (which wasn’t clear on the advertisement). We’re avid meat eaters, but we have it a try, which was a BIG mistake. Aside from the poor advertising and quality of the burgers, the additional food we ordered (chips) were poor quality, small, and took nearly an hour to come out. Additionally, there was only one bartender working on a Saturday afternoon (7/5) which, coupled with poor customer service by him, extended the wait time and made the experience even worse. The bartender was extremely RUDE and UNPROFESSIONAL. He wouldn’t honor our pub pass to include one alcoholic and one non-alcoholic. We brought our two passes only for him to say the best he can do is buy one get one free. It said that NOWHERE on the passes, and when I went to go say something to try and remedy the situation, he completely ignored me and made it seem like we were a bother for being there as paying patrons. Not only that, but he was even more rude when our “food” was ready and I tried to go pick it up (I put “food” in parentheses because the food was a joke - they were a small portion of Costco chips sprinkled with seasoning for $6). Overall, this was the WORST experience we’ve had at any of the pub pass bars we’ve visited this year (actually the worst customer service and quality of food we’ve received at any bar in Wisconsin). This place is awful and we are definitely NOT returning.

UPDATE: while I am leaving the review above as my girlfriend and I had a poor experience, the owner reached out to me and rectified the situation. Although we will not be returning, I encourage others to give the place a try if vegan food is your thing (the superb response from management increased my review from one star...

I really liked it here and would come back. There is a nice parking lot so you don't have to find a spot on the street. Ample space and seating inside. There was live music when we came and it was not busy. Very chill atmosphere. Lots of old vintage game machines line the wall if that's your thing. It reminds me very much of the interior of Classic Slice on Kinickinnick. The food is all vegan, which is awesome, and that's the whole reason we came. However the portions were very small compared to the price. Maybe that's a bar food thing. And I didn't care for the sauerkraut being added to the poutine. I liked the potatoes just plain, honestly, and I wish plain roasted potatoes were an option to order. They were out of ice cream, so we were pretty bummed, as I had my heart set on a float. Overall a good experience, but there is a little room for improvement with...

We were excited to try Dead Bird Brewing while in MKE for a bachelor party — a brewery with food, beer, and an arcade sounded perfect. Unfortunately, it fell short.

Ambiance & Staff Despite the variety of beer, food, and pinball machines, the atmosphere lacked warmth. A great brewery starts with customer engagement, but our bartender didn’t greet us or build rapport — just took our order and moved on.

Beer The Liz Wiz was decent, but the Lemonade Shandy was a miss — overly sour and stale-tasting. 2 of our guys couldn’t even finish their Shandy beer and they love beer.

Games The arcade selection is solid, but the coin system is inconsistent (Pac-Man only takes bills), and the air hockey table was broken during our visit.

This place has potential — a few tweaks to service, drink quality, and game upkeep could make it great. Rooting for Dead...